00:03:30.000hello everyone and welcome back to another exciting edition of victory never sleeps
00:03:39.240um had to miss you guys last week because i was flying out to ostara at uh thor's hoff and that
00:03:47.380was an amazing event um i know i always say that like broken record but those of you that come to
00:03:52.760these events know that i'm not lying and uh you know those that think i am come check it out and
00:03:58.760and prove me wrong they they are awesome it was a really great time it's a beautiful temple it's
00:04:04.200it's a really special place and i always look forward to going out and seeing my
00:04:08.680thorshoff family um our guest tonight happened to be be out of region uh joining joining me for that
00:04:17.320event uh we are so we've got for the first time tonight uh my friend and folk builder mike joiner
00:04:26.920um mike was the uh he won the folk building excellence award which is award we give out
00:04:33.540every year for the best uh best folk builder of that year and he won that for last year and
00:04:39.320yeah mike's fantastic guy and he is here to talk about rod the strong today this is going to be
00:04:47.880our first in a series that we're doing about the heroes of alsatru for those of you that might not
00:04:55.240know um we as the austro folk assembly celebrate days of remembrance for a number of our heroes
00:05:08.040many of these folks are people that the days of remembrance was established for
00:05:13.320back in i believe in the 1980s and it's been kind of on again off again uh observed for a time but
00:05:21.720But it's been very important to me during my time as I was here to go to really emphasize that.
00:05:27.860And in that time, we've added several several heroes, most of them modern, some of them from our past.
00:05:35.300And I want to shed a spotlight on those. So these people are celebrated, not forgotten.
00:05:41.340And so our audience can know a little bit about these folks and what made them so special.
00:05:46.760and so that's why we've got uh got mike here joining us tonight i want to get into route here
00:05:53.580in just this just a second but i kind of do this with everyone when it's their first time on the
00:05:57.560program mike do you want to tell folks a little bit about yourself and how you found osa true
00:06:04.360and specifically how you found the osa true folk assembly absolutely so um it was i had moved down
00:06:12.360to Tallahassee, Florida in 2010. I had started with, oddly enough, the Freemasons before I moved
00:06:20.420here from Mississippi. My grandfather was one and I decided, well, if he could do it, I could do it.
00:06:26.120So I joined them, moved down to Tallahassee, Florida, and I was at a local lodge. Wasn't
00:06:32.260happy, but I was in there and I was trying to make the best of it. And I was, I remember hearing
00:06:38.880it was uh they had asked alan witten alan turnage to do the blessing that night and i remember
00:06:43.920listening to it it was so different than everything else i'd ever listened to and it just
00:06:49.200i don't want to say lit a fire but definitely started a spark so a year or two later i talked
00:06:55.200to alan on and off we'd become friends you know how life will part you and then bring you back
00:06:59.600together so um it was a we had a I was watching um a TV show and it just kind of hit me and I said
00:07:10.220message I remember sitting there in my recliner watching TV on like a on a dreary Sunday afternoon
00:07:15.740and I frantically pull up my phone and my wife's like what are you doing I was like I got a message
00:07:19.580this guy hold on one second I think I still have his number and so I um message Alan I'm like hey
00:07:25.020you probably don't remember me, but I'm, I can't get over your, the prayer you said at dinner,
00:07:31.640you know, three years ago at this point, maybe four years ago at that point, I think it was
00:07:36.440three or four ago. Um, can we have lunch? And of course, Alan being Alan, he goes, sure. So we met,
00:07:44.320we had lunch. I came out with a list of at least two books to start on with a promise of more once
00:07:51.080get through those and uh that's that is the beginning of my path for ositru coming to the afa
00:07:59.000um this little rocky getting in and out i'll just kind of where i was at the time it was very long
00:08:05.880distance to get to anybody and it's funny like you see i say that i thought that then you know
00:08:12.680and that's that's the interesting part is oh man an hour away oh you know and then you step up to
00:08:19.000a folk builder and it's like yeah well you know three hours you're that that's a normal saturday
00:08:23.480morning drive you know four hours so oh look there's something going on eight hours away
00:08:28.200yeah i'll sure i'll take off work so and it's it's funny how the hotter and hotter the furnace
00:08:36.360burns inside of you the more and more you're willing to do and really push yourself and that's
00:08:40.920when i find once i got full builders when i finally all right you know once we got the
00:08:44.520hoff and that the spark and furnace just lit up so uh yeah now it's now it wouldn't be anything
00:08:51.400to drive four hours for a bloat back then it just seemed like a lot money wise was a lot tighter
00:08:56.200than two so but yes sir um in fact a funny point if you look at my uh reasons for joining
00:09:02.840it actually says alan won't leave me alone
00:09:07.320and i think my wife's reason for joining is mike and alan won't leave me alone so
00:09:14.520Well, we are, we're glad you found your way here.
00:09:20.260All right. So for folks listening that have never heard about Roud the Strong, can you, can you kind of, I don't know, give us, give us what we need to know and tell us a little bit about, about the life of Roud.
00:09:38.940um absolutely so it's interesting there's there's not a ton about him but we do know a good bit
00:09:45.780so um we know that he was uh i love the graphic um we know he was a bloat uh bloat priest and a
00:09:53.800seafaring warrior was two of the big things he is one of the they they say he practiced witchcraft
00:10:02.080which could be construed as either satyr or something very similar to so which is kind of
00:10:08.320which some sources will say that he practiced Seder Seder.
00:10:18.860He lived in part of the Godfrey Islands, presently day known as Bodo, B-O-D-O.
00:10:27.440He's known as actually having a strong connection with the Sami people,
00:10:30.420was considered a very large landowner with many house servants,
00:10:34.940and some of them actually uh and fins being part of the house servants um one of the most
00:10:40.460interesting things at least what i found was he was renowned for having the largest ship
00:10:47.100so the biggest ship the most decorative um and in fact some of the sources attribute
00:10:52.700his ship to being the beginning of the being the one of the first if not the first dragon ships or
00:10:59.420serpent ships. So, um, like anything in that day, somebody says, I want that as well. And you're
00:11:06.780not one of us. So I'm going to get what your thing is. Um, we had Olaf enter the picture,
00:11:12.100which was the king of Norway at the time. And that's his own interesting story of how he came
00:11:18.600to that to that but so um basically when route and a guy named his friend of his story or hort
00:11:27.900heard that olaf was coming they both got into their boats and uh thorier as well had a very
00:11:34.120uh had a large ship apparently as well so they headed down um thorier ships headed due south
00:11:41.760uh riled ships headed straight in um thorier ships were pretty much taken out pretty easily
00:11:47.920or pretty not easily pretty early in the battle whereas riled strips held in um the saga say that
00:11:55.280the ships were cleaned of or the was it the ships were cleared of men meaning that they were taken
00:12:03.320out uh taken out defeated um in some form or facet so riled just riled retreated uh he turned
00:12:12.520to sails and he actually used a technique that was very little well a little known about that
00:12:17.160about how to basically tack against the wind, which was interesting at that time, they were
00:12:22.080running rectangular square sails. So tacking was very difficult, if not almost, I won't say
00:12:29.180impossible, but close to it. Not until you got to more of later with the triangle sails were you
00:12:35.060able to really tack well. Anyway, Roud was able to, as the saga say, use his witchcraft that allowed
00:12:42.920him to sail against the winds, um, and escape, uh, and escape. It's also worth noting there that
00:12:49.500at this point, multiple sources and multiple people say that he was aided by the gods in his
00:12:55.960escape. So as he was entering, um, the aisles, they, uh, it would, it's not a jump to say that
00:13:04.240Nord interfered, uh, Nord interfered and helped him get home. So he retreated back to his house.
00:13:09.220um and that leads us to the second battle and battle being kind of a question mark on this one
00:13:15.680so he made it all the way back to his house um olaf had ran down his friend thorier and thorier
00:13:23.280is not mentioned much really after that other than mentioning that he was fast-footed so he
00:13:27.640was chased down and that was taking care and he was taken care of unfortunately um so under the
00:13:32.340Cloak of Darkness, Olaf, the Norwegian king, basically took over Roud's manor, snuck in,
00:13:40.740and captured him while he was sleeping and bound him there. So after a day or two of torturing,
00:13:48.320all of which it was, and it's kind of interesting when you say the torturing of Roud,
00:13:53.880because you had a situation of, you know, convert or die, convert or die. And this is kind of where
00:14:00.840you did that the neat part of the story is he sat there and took a mocking tone against olaf and
00:14:07.980olaf's um god at that point so he would never convert in fact instead of just saying no and
00:14:14.540being tight-lipped he took a mocking tone and so wouldn't convert wouldn't convert um at that point
00:14:20.700uh as soon as olaf finally olaf has had enough and this is where the story that the translations
00:14:26.500start to veer is how Olaf died, or not Olaf, excuse me, how Roud died. So we know he was
00:14:33.560captured, tortured, and bound. The question, the first source, the longer version of the death
00:14:40.560says that a snake was put into a horn, and the horn was put over his mouth. And then the snake
00:14:47.700refused to enter the mouth of Roud. So that's the first part. And that only occurs, I believe,
00:14:55.980in one text i don't remember which one i read that one in i do apologize i didn't cite that one
00:15:00.700um the next one however the next couple pick up from there and say that either the horn was heated
00:15:07.500up or that the snake was put into a pipe and i'm pretty sure that that's just pipe and horn or at
00:15:13.260that point would have been depends on how the translation came across and either way the snake
00:15:18.700had to have been forced into route's mouth we do know that one for a fact um the stout route story
00:15:23.820unfortunately ends with the snake eating through roud side and escaping thus um killing roud
00:15:32.260and olaf sailed away on roud on the largest ship roud uh roud serpent attack so um after that
00:15:41.460basically olaf gave roud's men the same option they had given to how he'd given to roud he
00:15:47.720convert or die. They said, um, half said convert, half said died. Um, and they were taken care of
00:15:54.360as such. So, um, yeah, Ralph is, uh, route is looking back on as being known for his honor
00:16:01.300and his courage and that he never turned his back on the gods. Thank you for that, Mike. Um,
00:16:08.780um I think it's extremely important uh when we look back at our heroes or when we look
00:16:19.760back at history in general to remember that these these are people these are people in
00:16:28.580you know in some ways very much like us and uh it's always been a tragedy to me that
00:16:38.240when viewing history time dehumanizes so when we look at something very tragic that happened to
00:16:48.120someone you know over a thousand years ago it's very easy not to feel the same emotion that you
00:16:54.920would feel if you saw that happen to one of our faithful on the news today. This is a flesh and
00:17:02.140blood man like you and I. Think of your father or your grandfather being, everybody's in a tizzy
00:17:11.440about waterboarding, but this man was held down and had a snake forced into his mouth, down his
00:17:18.980throat to chew its way out of his side. Um, and he was willing to do endure all of that
00:17:26.420for his loyalty to the Isir because he was also true. Um, and I think it's so important that we
00:17:35.820remember that and do it with a smile. I don't want to say a smile on his face, but do it
00:17:41.340with the knowledge that he was right. And that that's to me, that's, that that's, you know,
00:17:47.320sorry i didn't mean to interrupt you it was just a you're fine that idea that you can endure a lot
00:17:54.220with the idea of maybe i'm wrong right so you're in class you say oh i think this i think that
00:18:00.440but he did it with such magnitude to still sit there and be mocking that and that's
00:18:08.740his confidence is really that in and of itself is inspiring his confidence and his belief in the
00:18:14.480gods inspiring quite literally it's you know it's sad to note that some of his men chose conversion
00:18:20.660but it's I think more important given the given the circumstance to note that many of his men
00:18:27.020refused conversion and accepted death alongside him because of the example he set because their
00:18:33.560own faith um and arguably the the text doesn't directly say the numbers but from the from the
00:18:42.900ones that I, from everything that I've read pointed that more chose death.
00:18:49.560The fact that any, after watching the horrific way in which he was killed,
00:18:56.340chose to suffer a similar fate for their faith is, you know, is profound.
00:19:03.180The fact it was more than one, even more so.
00:19:05.540And for our guests that are listening to us on Spotify or listening to this just audio without the side chat, someone did point out, and correctly so, that Roud's Day of Remembrance is on January the 9th.
00:20:52.540If you ask me to write about the AFA, it would, of course, be biased.
00:20:55.400not that it's dishonest in any way, but I'm definitely on a side about it. And I think that
00:21:00.760as we've seen in my time in the Ask True Folk Assembly, the climate is such that, and I've
00:21:11.040heard this from a number of people who've done interviews with me, that their editor has sent
00:21:18.520them out for a specific purpose to do a story about racism and so that kind of starts the
00:21:26.080starts the process off of off of the bias i would say the the most fair article about us was from
00:21:34.800say the yuba democrat is the name of the paper and you could look that up or we could try to
00:21:45.720fact check that I think that's one I would look to that I think was done was done fairly um as far
00:21:52.520as you know other media that that is positive or unbiased about us we have several in our YouTube
00:21:58.520links if you go to the same channel um we have two really good uh good shows on um Expedition Truth
00:22:06.880hosted by Reverend Jack Ashcraft and those were very well done interviews you know and he's not
00:22:14.520you know, he's not from our circles. He's not Ausatru. He's, you know, an ordained clergyman
00:22:20.300in a, in a, another faith, but he did a very good job. I felt that was really fair. Um,
00:22:27.240several others that were, uh, that were, uh, audio or visually, um, sorry, audio or video
00:22:33.960interviews. And you can find them on our YouTube channel. If you look through there,
00:22:37.600can you think of any articles off the top of your head that were particularly fair or,
00:22:43.600or at least, uh, or fair or positive about us, Mike?
00:22:49.520I can't cite any sources, but I can tell you that some of the one that
00:22:56.260the press that we get from every, from the stories that I've gotten.
00:23:01.820And even to be honest, Matt, this is, this program has driven, I've taken, I can't tell
00:23:06.920you how many calls, uh, this program, um, some of the negative press we have gotten
00:23:12.960has actually been people like that can't be that bad look at the look at look at the way they're
00:23:18.560look at them they're they can't be what people are saying um and so that's we've gotten a ton
00:23:23.680of people that way uh this program and the melissa mills folklore study group uh that i believe it's
00:23:31.520melissa and j they do uh they do uh people wanting to join that is actually a big driver as well so
00:23:38.480as a as kind of a note on um on articles and this is this is anecdotal because obviously this is
00:23:46.960just you know conversation between me and the reporter but it has been really telling a number
00:23:50.800of uh reporters that i've talked to have you know kind of admitted that they were looking for a lot
00:23:56.720more dirt than they were able to find and some have been frustrated that we aren't the the evil
00:24:02.880monsters they were told we were and some have been you know respectful i don't i don't want to
00:24:11.760say you know like on our side about it but some have been you know appreciative of what we've
00:24:17.200done and said that you know they wish they could do this article on the you know community page
00:24:21.600or religion page as opposed to the the racism page um so take that for what it's worth trent asks
00:24:30.400mike which off is the best off answer carefully that's a good one um so i'll i'll give the
00:24:41.120initial my official answer is your half is the best half whichever half you can attend
00:24:46.880it's more important that you get to the half and celebrate with your folk uh
00:24:52.160matt and the witness have said many and many of times also true is not a solitary religion
00:24:58.160uh even if you can get does even if you don't have can't make it to a hof practice in the
00:25:03.920backyard with folk um which is the best hof of course you know i am a little biased to my home
00:25:10.820hof norther's hof um but i have enjoyed the company very much enjoyed the company of balder's
00:25:16.980hof and thor's hof this past weekend um i love everybody at both of those hofs i had we had
00:25:22.920absolutely amazing times we got to visit balder's hof and uh right before the winter storms hit
00:25:28.080this year up in minnesota which was wonderful to visit their yule celebration in this past weekend
00:25:34.000and a star was absolutely phenomenal um in fact i think my voice is still recovering from the power
00:25:40.000of uh the bloats this weekend and so uh my personally my home half but i will say everyone
00:25:50.960as i've said to the people when i do my initial call i've asked if they've ever set bloat
00:25:57.520pardon me matt if you don't mind if i go off on a little tangent on this one no go for it
00:26:01.120so i call it the goosebumps um and it's kind of a it's we all know what goosebumps are right
00:26:08.480i don't know if they have a different name elsewhere in the country we just know that
00:26:10.800i just know that's what they're called down here when your hair stand up and you get them on your
00:26:13.920skin and um it's that feeling you get the excitement so i usually if somebody will ask
00:26:21.440you know then they're oh they've said i've said you know i've asked if they've ever been to a
00:26:27.120hoff usually the answer tonight yeah i've never had someone say yes i've been to the hoff now i'm
00:26:30.960applying it's always been i haven't made it to a hoff yet and i said awesome little chit chat a
00:26:35.920few minutes and i says well you know i'll always i like to ask well do you sit bloat have you set
00:26:40.400sambal have you said any official service um usually the answer is no and i said okay have
00:26:47.760Have you have you gotten the goosebumps while reading or listening, reading information or listening to Victory Never Sleeps?
00:26:54.600And what I mean by that is not necessarily the goosebumps from, oh, I'm cold in here and I'm reading, but directed towards what you're actually doing.
00:27:08.520So what I mean by that is the one of the I mean, I get them still when I go to the hall, still sometimes even just talking about going to the hall, thinking about a powerful service.
00:27:17.040so of service this weekend the ostara bloat i mean i couldn't you know i felt like the goosebumps
00:27:22.640never left my skin and i one of the things i said is i say to some of the people i'm interviewing
00:27:28.640for the initial call is have you gotten the goosebumps just for someone saying grace
00:27:35.200saying prayer over the food sorry i'm still southern so we say grace down here
00:27:39.600and um usually the answer is no and i said then come to the hawk you know if
00:27:44.560i can't guarantee you that it will happen but it's an extremely extremely powerful event and
00:27:51.800that's kind of one of those i always remember the first time i got him was alan when alan was doing
00:27:56.260the uh grace at the mason's hall and so i always i always like to use that as a measure for the
00:28:05.820bright line of look for these as an emotional response to what's going on and that's one way
00:28:11.800in my mind that i know i'm on the right path so okay sorry no that's fine that's fine so
00:28:22.040our next uh question from the king of cheese matt mike good to see you both on how are we doing
00:28:29.480tonight p.s you're rocking that beard mike so mike how are you doing i am peachy bud um great day
00:28:38.760uh it's i wish uh baldur's hall folk would come take their cold weather away from florida we
00:28:43.720were in the 60s and 40s today it was miserable other than that i'm doing great how about you
00:28:50.440i'm doing fantastic i always say the same thing on here i'm sure it gets old
00:28:54.600but i'm doing good as mike just talked about uh we had a great weekend at uh at ostara that was
00:29:00.760awesome um i'm still still riding a high from that doing fantastic trying to think of
00:29:11.640i don't know we got so many really cool things going on right now i'm just happy and this is
00:29:16.520something i look forward to all week is getting to get on here and talk with y'all so i'm doing
00:29:20.680really well uh christian says mike it was such a pleasure to get to work with you in the kitchen
00:29:28.200during yule at baldersoff i look forward to feeding the folk again with you soon
00:29:33.320if you could pick one meal and then it cuts out so hopefully nick's got the rest of whatever that
00:29:38.120question was all right does not look like we do so uh if you could pick one meal to do something
00:29:52.440of your choosing with please what would it be first i'll do my shameless plug for the project
00:29:59.000the big project i'm working on um is cook uh is the cookbook the afa cookbook um it's gonna the
00:30:07.240shameless plug was going to come at some point tonight so y'all are getting it now and possibly
00:30:10.200getting it later um i am trying to put together a cookbook for us uh for the afa the catch of it
00:30:18.120is that i want all the food oh what would be your last okay um pick one meal to be your last
00:30:24.680what would it be okay that's that's an interesting one so the well i'll get to that one in a second
00:30:28.920the cookbook is i want every recipe in the cookbook to been have to have been served
00:30:36.680either at the hof at a moot or a folk feast so that way as we're putting this out we know that
00:30:44.760every recipe has imbued the power of the folk into it you know it's not just you pulled out you know
00:30:52.200something off the back of the macaroni and cheese box and you thought it looked cool it to have been
00:30:57.880served to the folks to me that brings such power and such a you know a dedication and that's the
00:31:05.560the word I'm looking for. There's so much more meaning to, and Stee and Christian I know knows
00:31:16.700this one, Heather Young knows this one as well, to put so much of yourself into a meal to serve
00:31:22.620to the full that it's not just, for you, it's not always just, you know, here's roast beef and
00:31:28.480mashed potatoes. You know, here's, you know, a Julia, uh, a adapted Julia Child's recipe that
00:31:35.580Stian, uh, made for Ed Baldershoff. You know, it's, it is a piece of yourself that you have put
00:31:42.900copious amounts of thought, energy, and effort that you had to make it a point
00:31:48.680to go to the grocery store and pick out those ingredients. You know, it's, it's not just a,
00:31:53.820I'm going to feed the folk what can I have what do I have in the pantry so it's a conscious
00:31:58.740decision to try to make the folk happy so that's that's that answer um so cook and the cookbook is
00:32:07.020it's cookbook at runestone.org please submit recipes we do not have nearly enough to start
00:32:12.180filling up pages um so what would be my last meal that is an extremely hard question um
00:32:21.660honestly the first thing one of the things that i really really enjoy is uh is i don't i don't
00:32:33.000want to call it at my last meal would be a charcuterie board because that's not it at all
00:32:36.320it's various dried meats and stinky cheese i love me some blue cheese um pepper jack love cheese in
00:32:45.360general more the more stronger the flavor the better and i love meat in every former facet
00:32:51.480that it can come in so something with meat and cheese just not spaghetti all right there you have
00:32:58.520it charcuterie to send mike off so the next question uh from sarah mike you are one of the
00:33:10.120constantly happy people that i mostly mo one of the most constantly happy people
00:33:15.080i've ever seen it's awesome and inspiring what is your secret
00:33:21.480uh honestly this my secret was taught to me more why my dad didn't tell it to me directly he kind
00:33:31.700of he did it while i was growing up very incrementally um honestly the secret is to
00:33:38.360learn apathy and i know that's kind of contrary to being happy but what i really what that really
00:33:45.300means is learning what to care about. When you can figure out what means the most in the world
00:33:51.980to you, it is eat and only seek to control or influence that sphere. Then there's no reason
00:34:00.060not to be, then there's no reason to have a frown about anything else. Now things will upset me and
00:34:05.640I'm not going to lie. I get upset, but I tend to always get re-energized and going to the
00:34:13.280Hoff re-energizes me. I'll be perfectly honest on that one. But I keep my smile by figuring out
00:34:19.760what I don't need to care about and not putting so, not harping on the negative, but always looking
00:34:26.340at the positive. Katie, my wife, will tell you that I'm probably one of the most positively
00:34:31.140negative people possible. And she'll say that my ADD will kick into that one because
00:34:36.020i will uh if i see the if i see a problem my first instinct is to figure out the solution and then
00:34:42.980every reason while why that solution will and will not work so and then every of course you know
00:34:49.340multiverse at that if you're into the marvel thing um all the other solutions so i you i yeah she gets
00:34:56.280frustrated at that one but that's my trick learn what to care about and then let the work let the
00:35:02.140let the mundane just go away. Good deal. Kind of take a break from questions for a second.
00:35:10.640Nick, thank you once again. You're awesome. Nick found the article I was mentioning and he posted
00:35:16.300a link in the chat if you guys are interested. One of the things I'll say about the gentleman
00:35:21.800that did the article that was really impressive, I've talked to a lot of reporters at this stage
00:35:28.040And. They are, you know, almost all. Very, very friendly and trying to be your best friend to get something out of you.
00:35:39.160And then the tone that they have when they do their piece is often quite different.
00:35:45.160And I know that going in the gentleman who did that article that Nick linked over there, though.
00:35:52.300His attitude was the same when he was speaking to me beforehand and when he spoke to me in any kind of a follow-up situation.
00:36:00.820It was also the same tone that came across in the article.
00:36:04.100And what I'll say is his quotations that he used from me are not only accurate, but the tone and the context is accurate, too, which can make all the difference in the world.
00:36:15.060So you asked about unbiased. I don't know about unbiased, but I think fairly presented. That article is the most fairly presented one we've had.
00:36:26.100So, yeah. Next question from Kingdom of Vinland. Promethean hails. What do you think of the idea of using stained glass art like cathedrals in a temple to Balder?
00:36:38.520I think it makes sense. I think it makes amazing sense. I love stained glass art. It is, it is
00:36:45.700beautiful. And it is one of the things that comes very much from our folk soul. It's not something
00:36:51.200that you see other places. And we've talked about that a lot internally. Stained glass on a massive
00:37:00.340scale is hard to do. One of the other things we've looked at doing is painted glass. And you
00:37:07.860painted glass even sometimes in stained glass work but uh painted glass also does beautiful
00:37:14.100things with light i think to balder is certainly a you know one of the perfect places to put it but
00:37:20.900i think in in any of our hops would be amazing to have stained or painted glass work um at balder's
00:37:27.460off as it is we've got this is going to be hard to explain maybe nick can throw up a picture of
00:37:32.500of the the steeple at Baldershof but it's got it's got segments up top there that we're actively
00:37:41.740working on some some colored glass projects in and it's apropos that it's brought up at this time
00:37:49.600because one of the things we're doing with that is celebrating heroes with those pieces of art
00:37:54.160but as it is now in Baldershof and one of the things that's the most beautiful about it
00:37:59.440and it's beautiful with the light coming in but it's really special if you see it after sunset
00:38:09.180I want to say it's got six stained glass windows three along each side
00:38:15.560and they're beautiful they're not particularly religious in nature they're just
00:38:19.860alternating colors but when it's the sun just goes down there and the light is coming from
00:38:28.560the hall and are full gathered inside the doors open you see that warm light come out but what
00:38:33.300you also see on the sides is the light lit from the inside of the hoff in these beautiful colors
00:38:39.500and it's it's a really really pretty thing if you get a chance to see it
00:38:43.740uh yeah so i'm i'm all for that mike you got any thought on stained glass
00:38:48.520it is beautiful absolutely gorgeous and uh it's and matt i'll add on to it it's it's really pretty
00:38:56.640outside baldershoff when it has a light blanket of snow so you have the beautiful white dark white
00:39:03.040ground with these pungent blues and yellows or at least i can tell they're pungent blues and
00:39:08.160yellows coming through um being able to see all that that is very beautiful at night
00:39:14.800uh stained glass i know is soup to me it looks it's one of those like
00:39:20.080it looks so hard to work with people say oh it's not that bad i say i i believe you
00:39:26.640so next question is from the king of cheese what is saver and how if possible can it be used by
00:39:37.300also true today so that's a that's a broad question that i think a comprehensive answer
00:39:47.660to exactly what is say there and what counts is tricky um safe practice involves
00:40:01.100very often involves trance work it involves letting
00:40:08.780it involves interacting with spirits other than yourself in a way that
00:40:17.660they can work through you or perhaps that you can work through them um and i'm being
00:40:30.060i'm being non-specific on purpose because i don't want to narrow the definition
00:40:35.180but those things are very often involved in it in our ancestral tradition it was most office
00:40:43.100often practiced by women but um as as mike mentioned earlier there is uh you know talk
00:40:50.140about rowd practicing that perhaps um it was something that the goddess freya taught the
00:40:56.620all-father odin um but yeah it involves contacting entities outside yourself in in a spiritual or
00:41:09.100magical way. And that's part of, part of that practice. Along with that are a number of
00:41:16.260different things. Um, the idea of possession, the idea of projection of your spirit into other
00:41:24.620things. There's a lot, and to talk comprehensively about it is difficult. First, if, of course,
00:41:40.880it can be used. If it can be used then, it can be used now. I think one of the things
00:41:45.260that greatly assist in it being useful is people that have a natural inclination towards
00:41:54.600I think we've all known people that are, you know, a little bit more spooky than the rest of us and have a better time interacting with spirits than the rest of us, folks that, you know, pick up on subtle things the rest of us don't.
00:42:13.640perhaps people that have, as some more ancestors would call it, second sight, those kind of things, people that shine, that kind of stuff.
00:42:23.240That helps. What else I think helps is as we build a culture and a context for it,
00:42:32.020it can strengthen techniques that came, that were much better developed in the time of our ancestors
00:42:41.540and have laid fallow for a really long time now.
00:44:58.120and the way the building was done initially,
00:45:01.440plumbing's not the end of the world to move um i've learned that because i think i've touched
00:45:07.400every inch of plumbing in that building at this point and some on the outside dug it up
00:45:11.800um so we're looking at we've got to move the kitchen we need more space for that
00:45:17.660especially when we start looking at uh we're getting certified with usda for our food pantry
00:45:24.500So we've got to have space for the freezers for that. It's just in general, we need a bigger kitchen. So that's our big one. I like to joke that I have a little small, you know, 20 foot RV. It has a bigger kitchen than Nortoff. So, but hey, I still like to think I try to make some magic happen out of that.
00:45:46.900and you do you do an amazing job there i think that folks think you're exaggerating when you
00:45:52.780talk about your rv kitchen being bigger than your soft kitchen i've been there and i don't think you
00:45:58.200are um all right so gothy daniel young says mike rumor has it you are a mead maker can you tell
00:46:11.560us about that process and do you make mead with devotion in mind uh so i'll yes i love to brew um
00:46:23.880i am a very much a traditional brewer i i don't like to add flavorings i've only added
00:46:31.800extra spice once and fruit once i um i have that my mead flavoring i like a traditional
00:46:41.160thick mead um i and the reason is with with the second part of that to question more of devotion
00:46:47.800in mind if you think about traditional mead making it would have been done in whatever vessel they
00:46:53.000could find right so arguably clay pots is some form of vessel depending on where you know i think
00:47:00.920in fact i think archaeological has clay pots that could be wrong spawn will probably correct me on
00:47:04.280that one or or tell me i'm completely right with sources um but what a lot of what it would be is
00:47:10.600a mixture of water and then wild yeast and so you were never going to really cultivation of yeast
00:47:20.760has only really been a more modern thing to my understanding we've only really started true
00:47:25.800cultivation of yeast 15 16 hundreds on and please do not quote me on that that's just off of my own
00:47:34.760top of my head i i like to read stuff about yeast because if you talk to any brewer the comment the
00:47:40.440the conversation will always go back to what yeast are you using um so I like to go what I
00:47:47.740would think would be a tradition a authentic to our to you know pre 1000 common era mead which
00:48:00.020would be a thick sweet mead because it'd be it one it'd be extremely hard to seal it up to get it
00:48:07.780it'd be hard to seal it up to the extent to make it dry. And then again, it would be extremely
00:48:14.620hard to cultivate enough yeast to make it dry. So that's one reason I really enjoy. I like a
00:48:23.020sweet mead. So do I do it with devotion in mind? Yes and no. That is a practice that I've started
00:48:31.960on some of my newer batches of um with more it will i'm not gonna you know i don't want to say
00:48:39.800oh i made mead because i was one to make some you know honey wine no i made mean with the idea that
00:48:45.640it could be used for devotion i've i've only more recently in the past year or two or a couple of
00:48:52.260years made the mental adjustment to make the devotion while i brew mead if that makes sense
00:49:00.540so it rather than it just making alcohol it's become a almost spiritual form of uh brewing it
00:49:10.040in fact when i do my um racking which is moving the liquid from one vessel to another i actually
00:49:17.600will sacrifice part of that and put on my altar overnight so good deal so next question is oh um
00:49:30.400First, I don't recall if you did this or not, but earlier in the broadcast, did you give, you know, approximate years for when, when Roud lived?
00:49:42.300so the we know he died around 1 000 as far as age and all i did not find any source anything
00:49:52.580that would put a chronological time frame that i saw to say he was 27 38 it i never really found in
00:50:05.960yes i have my sources with me because i am that big of a nerd um
00:50:13.480i i don't i've everything i've i've looked at oh one more
00:50:21.480even though i've read all of this today or more or last night i've none of it says how old he was
00:50:30.520Okay. So the entirety of his life, unless he was very, very ancient, took place in the 10th century. Just not sure if we covered that, but so people are aware.
00:50:42.680Next question is, all right. Mike, are you still a Mason? If so, what degree? And do you know the Hebrew origins and purpose of Freemasonry? Thank you.
00:50:56.980so to answer in line uh no i have not been a freemason since probably 2011 i would say at
00:51:07.620the absolute latest most likely probably 2010 um i had reached the degree of master mason
00:51:14.380and i'm pretty sure at some point i have heard the word the hebrew origins of it and
00:51:21.460i have found that to be a part of my life that let me phrase that hold on i don't necessarily
00:51:29.120say that i think of it as a great you know if if an individual is looking for a men's club that's
00:51:35.240not a bad way to go i will say that i understand that it has hebrew origins okay however i got out
00:51:44.600of it, something completely different is I got out Ossetru, which I may be one of the only people
00:51:51.500who've ever come out of the Freemasons and converted to Ossetru. And the Freemasons being
00:51:56.340the link to me finding the person that got me into this. So a short answer is no, I'm not a long
00:52:04.940of the rest of it is I'm sure I've learned about it at some point. However, there have been much
00:52:11.140better memories that have come along the way to where I'd rather remember those than that.
00:52:17.080If that makes sense. All right. It does. Next question.
00:52:26.420Matt and Mike, great to see you from Australia. What are your thoughts on Loki,
00:52:32.760future Loka Hoff, a video explaining AAFA's relationship with him? So I know that folks
00:52:40.700over in the chat room jumped on you a little bit first thank you for joining us i'm glad you're
00:52:44.860here uh it's great to have somebody listening from australia um people have made our position
00:52:54.540and the afa has made their position very clear in the past on loki but i understand that you know
00:52:59.260everybody is not a not an expert on the afa's positions and that's fine
00:53:03.820uh no the afa stands firmly against loki in all ways that we can
00:53:09.100um i also read some of your questions or some of your comments on the side
00:53:14.780um trying to contextualize loki's existence but what's really important for us who practice
00:53:23.580ousatru is what that word means and it's very often miss uh mistranslated as belief in the
00:53:35.180the Aesir. And it doesn't mean that. It means troth with. It means to be true to the Aesir.
00:53:42.760It means loyalty to the Aesir. And if we stand loyal with the Aesir, that means de facto we
00:53:50.960stand against their enemies, which Loki certainly is. We couldn't in good conscience have a Hoff
00:54:01.080to worship balder and also celebrate uh his slayer through treachery um so yeah the afa
00:54:10.440stands firmly against loki um i certainly hope that there is never a loki hof and if there were
00:54:16.440the afa would want no involvement with that whatsoever um there's no real need to make a
00:54:23.320video explaining our relationship with loki because it's it's very simple and it's very
00:54:28.280clear cut he stands on one side and we stand very firmly on the other um but i know that that's
00:54:34.680question that probably a lot of folks have uh and i know it's a question a lot of new people have
00:54:39.320so i appreciate you coming and i answer or and asking it this evening
00:54:44.600uh daniel says have you learned different things from each of the hoffs and perhaps from their
00:54:51.000cultural differences he didn't put a name on it so i'm going to steal an answer at the end of it
00:54:55.800but uh mike go ahead and and go have you learned different things from each the hoffs that you
00:55:00.840visited and uh have you noticed the cultural differences absolutely so i'll start i'll go
00:55:09.800with baldur's hoff thors and then ours um the norther's uh so baldur's hoff it was uh we
00:55:16.200we were we had me and my wife had the wonderful pleasure of sitting yule with them and they have a
00:55:23.080and please excuse me i'm not saying if i say it about one half doesn't mean it's not true about
00:55:30.140others it's just that was a you know something it's something noticed there if that makes
00:55:35.500hopefully you'll allow me that um there's a balder's half has an overwhelming amount of piety
00:55:46.400um and i mean that with absolute all respect that i can possibly give so what was really
00:55:52.880interesting when i was at baldur's hawth is the amount of leadership that is there
00:55:58.160um people devoted to it i mean that is um you know everybody there it's it's i felt like they
00:56:07.340were like my like their lives were like mine was it's a you plan your month and your weeks
00:56:14.440about getting to the hawk it's it's not about you know when can i go jet skiing again or when can i
00:56:20.560you know go to the beach it's about when can i go to the hawk um and so i felt that very much
00:56:28.600at baldur's hawk not that i'm saying that thor's hawk didn't that please don't think better that
00:56:33.280our hawk doesn't um it's just that was a very overwhelming feeling um they introduced me uh
00:56:40.320Witten Callahan introduced me to the concept of a folk flame, something that I absolutely love.
00:56:47.260Walking in, passing your hand over it, you know, or having someone light it with the idea of here are the things to think about right now.
00:56:55.880And that is just such an amazing idea is to have that folk flame.
00:56:59.240And the idea that it brings other people into the service as well.
01:16:34.120And we're very much appreciative that's something you would consider doing.
01:16:37.020We do food pantries at each of our Hoffs every single month, and those are a big deal to the communities that we operate in.
01:16:46.140We also have charitable outreach that typically goes in the form of food to our folk who are our ethnic folk who are being mistreated in South Africa.
01:16:58.560So we have a number of different charity things that we do if you'd like to be involved in helping with that.
01:17:03.440uh sarah says have you ever read henry wadsworth longfellow's poem tale of wayside in 1863
01:17:13.860there is a section called the musician's tale the saga of king olaf that talks
01:17:20.460of the pursuit of ralb the strong there you go he's on top of it he's got it in his hand
01:17:28.720and there's a there's a graphic even that we've got up which is cool if you don't mind real quick
01:17:36.400far north in the sultan fjords by rape and fire and sword lives a viking rod the strong
01:17:43.160all the goatee islands belong to him and his heathen horde a warlock a wizard is he a lord
01:17:51.420of the wind and sea. And whichever way he sails, he has ever favoring gales by his craft and
01:17:59.180sorcery. With rights we both adore, he worships Odin and Thor. So it cannot be said that all the
01:18:10.200gods are dead and that the warlocks are no more. Henry Wadworth Longfellow. I love those three
01:18:17.220standards. Well done to you both. And I'll build on that one. Sarah's absolutely correct. If you
01:18:28.580get a chance, that entire book, The Wayfarer's End, The Tales from the Wayside End, is actually
01:18:35.000a really neat read. It is literally, it's a poetic version of a bunch of people sitting around
01:18:43.280telling stories and so they have all our come from different walks of life a musician a poet
01:18:51.440i forget what all of them are um i have the i think 1929 copy because i like old books
01:18:57.840um old things are fun but yeah they all come from uh students um a spaniard a sicilian a musician
01:19:05.680a theologian um worth the pickup you can get them pretty cheap on ebay so it's the wayside
01:19:10.640in or you can download it for free online i'm sure fails from the way side in
01:19:20.480all right um so we only have two questions left if you guys have anything else you want to ask
01:19:28.320please go ahead and get those questions in if not when we're done with only we'll
01:19:32.640wish you all a good night and see you again next week
01:19:35.440good evening matt and mike can you tell us about the banner behind you
01:19:44.480so i believe this is directed at you mike can you tell i think so uh so this banner that's um
01:19:52.240so above it those are two needle points that my wife have done um that's our altar there so we
01:19:58.480have a very odd shaped house um the banner behind me you can kind of see it that is part of melissa
01:20:04.960Mills made that to hang on the sign, the street sign at Lord's Hoff before we got our permanent
01:20:14.380sign done. And so once we got our permanent sign, that one and its mate came down. Charming to the
01:20:21.680plow, we said that we were going to auction one and hold on to one. And I was not letting anyone
01:20:27.780walk out of that room with it except for me. So that's what that is. That is our, you can see
01:20:33.740it's got the marlin on it established 2022 it says north off across the top
01:20:49.660next question here from obsidian skull what do you think about uh christians talking about
01:20:56.860uniting against a common enemy with folkish heathens do you think that is something viable
01:21:03.740or would you go full on rather uh rather in uh ramey way not sure what the last part means um
01:21:17.180context is everything i don't know what that means certainly the current struggle uh culturally is
01:21:25.420not Christian versus Ausatru. The current struggle is traditionally minded people versus
01:21:33.500progressivism and leftism that is moving the culture in a direction that's far from our values.
01:21:44.120As far as that goes, certainly there's plenty of room for us to work together with Christians
01:21:49.540in community ways, in social ways, in political ways. There's a lot of ways for Alcetruar and
01:21:57.780Christian to find common ground on a lot of issues. But what is very important is that those
01:22:05.700distinctions aren't trivial. What I've seen with a lot of the younger generation that's involved
01:22:12.460in things also true sounds cool because it fits their political viewpoint and that's an okay way
01:22:21.020to start but it's very important that you're also true for the right reasons that you're also true
01:22:27.980because you want to be also true and be loyal to our gods and your faith should affect your
01:22:35.020politics not the other way around so um working with christians for common common values and
01:22:42.620common goals i think is a very very good thing but you need to be strong in your in your faith
01:22:49.020as an outsider and that needs to come first i've got a couple more questions populated here
01:22:58.700matt speaking of strength can you touch on the need for physical excellence
01:23:02.940as opposed to giving into the soul sickness that manifests in a physical way absolutely so um
01:23:14.300in in america specifically we have a a very big problem with obesity um
01:23:27.500there's plenty of other physical ways that people aren't healthy and should fix that
01:23:31.980but the biggest one i think that affects our people is
01:23:37.580extreme levels of obesity and there's all kind of there's so many different ways
01:23:46.220that you can take that and things that you can say about it um i believe very strongly that
01:23:52.700your your physical condition in so many ways is a reflection of your spiritual condition
01:24:02.300and physical fitness or physical fatness is a
01:24:09.820it reflects on on some of your values for someone to be in shape in the world that we live in takes
01:24:16.520discipline. It takes perseverance. It takes a lot of effort and it does speak a lot to character.
01:24:25.360It takes a lot of work to get in good shape. It takes a lot of work to stay in good shape. It
01:24:30.100takes a lot of work to overcome, especially if you start in a spot where you're very out of shape.
01:24:35.760And it takes a lot to maintain that. And these things say a lot about who you are and how you
01:24:40.880value yourself. The other thing that I don't want to shy away from is that looks matter.
01:24:46.520We should look our very best. People ask all the time on here what we can do to, you know,
01:24:52.100how do we convince people that Alistair is good? How do I convince my family? How do I bring people
01:24:56.740home to Alistair? Your physical appearance is the first line of, I guess, first line of defense and
01:25:05.940first line of offense in this war for hearts and minds. When people see you, you are a walking
01:25:13.780poster for house of true and a walking poster for the astro focus center you should want to look
01:25:19.700your best for us for the gods for your spouse for your family an example for your children
01:25:28.420example for everyone so these are really important things and aside from just the visual and the way
01:25:34.900it reflects on character it's also terrible health wise it is a huge cause of health problems
01:25:44.020especially as our population ages it's bad on joints all the other normal things but it relates
01:25:50.100to so many other conditions that are on the side of it so it's really important in the afa that we
01:25:55.140We try to fix that. And when I say fix that, it's really hard when you're very far from a goal that
01:26:06.120you may have, but it's not our all or nothing thing. Fixing that means let's try to get us
01:26:14.040all a little better tomorrow than we are today and a little better a year from now than we are
01:26:19.400right now. And over time, I've talked about this in terms of victory in any way, but it's a game
01:26:26.000of inches and it's a game of small steps. And you lay little victory on top of little victory on top
01:26:30.440of little victory. And that's what gets you to that big victory. So it's really important that
01:26:35.480our people work on our physical appearance, work on our physical health, and that we are an example
01:26:42.320to others to do so as well. I would love to see that be a defining thing in the Astro Folk
01:26:48.600assembly in our church. But I know it's something that folks struggle with, and we're trying to do
01:26:55.080everything we can to help that out and to get people more positive. One of the other things
01:27:00.260that I'll say about it is it has a lot to do with your self-confidence or lack thereof.
01:27:06.440When you look good, you feel good. When you look good, you hold yourself a certain way.
01:27:11.020When you're proud of your appearance, you hold yourself and you carry yourself a certain way.
01:27:14.860that collectively builds power. The more of us that have that self-confidence and have that
01:27:22.340power, we share that power like we share things ensemble and we become better as a church and
01:27:28.400better as a people. So it's very important to us. We're going to work on ways to try to help
01:27:33.420our folk get better in that regard. Do you mind if I add in real quick?
01:27:39.380Mike, I done told you. Please add in whatever you like.
01:27:42.020one of the things i love to see is when my fellow folk builders are doing outdoor moots so it's not
01:27:49.780a secret we do we try every folk builder and apprentice tries to do one moot a month right
01:27:55.340we know that that's our normal thing and it's i tell you what some of my outdoor moots have been
01:28:01.820so much more fun than just hey we're meeting at a bar so we uh we went i took a bunch of guys this
01:28:08.480was this was before i want to say uh november october november we did a moot where a but i
01:28:18.460figured out a bunch of us used to skateboard or longboard and at some point we all went out and
01:28:23.960skateboarded and longboarded together down like a rails to trails kind of thing and we had the
01:28:29.160best time we met at a brewery all skated a little bit when bat had some wonderful um had a beer or
01:28:35.220two, talked a little bit, and then we left. We talked earlier about time driving. I drove three
01:28:41.040hours to hang out with some of the best people in the area, some of the best people. And I would do
01:28:46.400it again in an absolute heartbeat. I'd love to see some of the lifting moots that the Northwest does
01:28:52.540and the Midwest does, or Middle East, however you want to divide it. Baldur's Hof area, some of the,
01:29:00.620I want to say it's the was it Washington State that does a lot of lifting moots or gym moots.
01:29:06.500I love that. I think that's awesome. I love the hiking moots that are coming out of the Baldershof district where people are going hiking.
01:29:14.040They're doing stuff. That's the kind of we know it's it's we can all have a great time at a restaurant.
01:29:20.540And yes, there is a time and a place to have a great meal.
01:29:23.260I honestly, I'm one of the first people that will tell you, I think feasting is a very, very important part of our faith and religion.
01:29:32.500And a very important part of who we are is to share a meal together.
01:29:37.280But with that, we also, to give you credit, we also need to not always just belly up to the feast table, so to speak.
01:29:47.200So, yeah, I know I try to do more and more outside.
01:29:51.140As a rule, Americans and around the world, we all need to be outside more.
01:29:58.120I'm a particular fan of the idea of grounding, walking around barefoot on the ground and on dirt and grass.
01:30:06.740But with that, I'll end my little diatribe in saying, Alan, if you're listening, yes, I will be at the gym tomorrow.
01:30:15.920Good deal. And yes, last speaker is listening. He's over in the side in the chat.
01:30:21.140Um, Bodie asks, Mike, when will the first AFA disc golf tournament at Njortov be?
01:30:30.180When we can find more than three of us that do it, buddy, I'll be more than happy.
01:30:34.240In fact, I'll even put up a couple of discs for prizes.
01:30:37.380We just got to find a couple more people in the district and we'll figure out a central place to hold a tournament.
01:30:44.800So I don't know why he's asking. He knows I'm going to beat him, but, you know.
01:30:47.860um okay can you speak on women blessing the mead at events attending our first event soon
01:30:58.720and curious about the practice all right so this practice
01:31:02.560not sure if brandy is still listening or not but we've got some some of our afa history on it
01:31:12.700I believe Goethe David James, who's no longer with us, he passed in 2014, I believe.
01:31:22.500I believe he was the guy that started that idea.
01:31:27.180But I'm hoping somebody on the side checks me if I'm wrong.
01:31:30.460But this is a time-honored AFA practice where our ladies go off with the mead that we're going to do for ritual.
01:31:37.860and you know all the all the women from from birth to birth to death anywhere in there go out there
01:31:47.840and um enchant the mead to prepare it for ritual and fill it with with magic and with might
01:31:57.180honestly i wish i could tell you i don't wish i can work poor turn of phrase because i really
01:32:04.040don't want to well no because i really don't want to know i know i know it's right it's special
01:32:09.080because it's it's a secret it's something that just our women do and the more secretive it is
01:32:15.640the that adds a certain magical potency to it um i am unable to tell you much about the actual
01:32:24.520what goes into it except for they always yell healthy babies at the end so i assume that
01:32:30.840factors in and, you know, birth rates in the AFA are doing pretty good. So something's working,
01:32:36.280but it's, it's a really special thing. Our ancestors. Okay. So I mentioned this earlier
01:32:43.280in the, in the program with safe practice, there's some people that have the gift of
01:32:51.500second sight or have these magical gifts more than others. And our ancestors have always believed
01:32:59.780That women have a special connection to the divine in a way that's different than men do, and in a way that's particularly useful when it comes to imbuing things with magical power.
01:33:14.200So are women using their inherent connection to the divine as a group to charge that mead to where it's prepared for our ritual?
01:33:26.920That's what that's about. It's a very special thing that we do. And excellent. I'm excited to hear that you're planning on attending your first event. That's fantastic. I wish you the very best with that. I hope that turns out great.
01:33:41.320um being from florida what do you think about house bill 269 uh that will make criticism of
01:33:52.360jews a felony both of you please um mike do you have thoughts on house bill uh florida house bill
01:34:00.560269 i have not i'll be perfectly honest i have not read it um i or i will not pretend to know
01:34:08.180much of it. My head here of lately has not been in politics, nor has my heart by any stretch of
01:34:16.480the imagination. Without going on a tirade, I don't want to give an opinion without actually
01:34:28.820knowing more about it, to be perfectly honest, because we look at some of the other stuff the
01:34:33.560great state of Florida has done where the media will label it one thing, but it actually means
01:34:37.760another so and i'm not please don't think i'm trying to call you out if that's not what i'm
01:34:41.760saying is i don't know enough of the bill to speak on it so that's that's right unfortunately that's
01:34:48.080where i stand so um here's the thing uh giving commentary from the quote unquote pulpit about a
01:35:01.920specific piece of legislation gets us very close to a line that's not appropriate for our 501c3
01:35:12.160designation and i wouldn't want to do that secondly like mike said i'm not um
01:35:20.960i'm not i haven't read that bill in its entirety i'm not overly familiar and i
01:35:25.680don't want to speak on something i don't know about other thing i do want to say though is
01:35:31.920Freedom of speech is really essential to be able to have discussions that need to happen.
01:35:41.120And that's not a, that doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on or what side of
01:35:48.260social issues or religious issues or anything else you're on.
01:35:52.300If we don't have the ability to candidly speak our mind on things, then we can't have meaningful
01:36:00.180discussion and without meaningful discussion, we limit our options on ways to change things.
01:36:06.680Not only do I think it is inherently very unfair to limit the ability to speak, I also think it
01:36:14.320is very dangerous because it takes away a whole lot of things in our toolbox of resolving issues.
01:36:21.480And it only leaves, you know, very few things. And many of those things are very unpleasant.
01:36:27.360It's a much better world for all of us when we can candidly discuss issues we agree on or issues we disagree on.
01:36:35.780That is a pressure valve and a safeguard for all of us to feel like our voice is heard and like we can affect the world around us through civilized, nice means.
01:36:49.360um i also again not knowing the bill but just taking your characterization from it i think that
01:36:58.160it's it's very tricky when the rules the laws of our nation or our state protect
01:37:10.640one group of people at the expense of another group of people and
01:37:18.400It's funny because certain groups of people
01:37:21.540always want to be treated fairly and equally
01:37:26.080until they have an opportunity to make rules.
01:37:30.880And then when they do to use that as a cudgel
01:37:33.920to do things to other folks that a generation previous,
01:37:39.040they were complaining about folks doing to them.
01:38:13.320all the banks failing what if anything can we do to batten down the hatches and keep our families
01:38:21.800uh and folk safe and secure um i think that's a leap um i think there there may very well be some
01:38:32.280kinds of economic collapse in the future but i don't think that there's an impending economic
01:38:37.800collapse that's right around the corner i think that people have been saying that for
01:38:44.040my entire life and for the life of people older than myself and we haven't really seen it happen
01:38:48.440in that way um but i think there's a lot of stuff we can do to help in times of economic uncertainty
01:38:57.880and as far as like specific plans on that i'm not the economics guy but what i will say
01:39:03.880that is really important to us in the afa is that we work together as a community
01:39:13.000when we have a really tight religious community that takes care of one another
01:39:17.640it buttresses us across the economy as opposed to so like
01:39:24.360to feel that the entire american economy is going to collapse is kind of a an extreme position
01:39:30.600And when I say that doesn't mean it can't happen. But I don't think that that's likely to happen. What I think is much more likely to happen is certain sectors of the economy collapsing very hard or having very hard times.
01:39:44.660But one of the things that's really special with our community is that we've got, we're big enough now to where we have people in, you know, I can't say all economic, you know, spheres, but pretty much.
01:40:01.920We've got people all across that economic spectrum in labor, in production, in technology, in the military, in civil and government services, in investing, in everything, to where if one thing fails, we have a bunch of us that are not failing.
01:40:24.520and one thing we've tried really hard to do with the afa and i think we've been doing this since
01:40:29.400i want to say 2013 or so we've had the folk services program and that's where we run fundraisers
01:40:37.480and we you know we pretty much always have one going about a member or family within the afa
01:40:44.120that are struggling and that's pooling monies together to help those people out of whatever
01:40:49.000their situation is um we've helped a lot of people that way and it's not i understand that you're
01:40:55.400asking a macro question and i'm giving you a micro answer but it's the answer that is honest and real
01:41:02.680that i have access to there's very little that i think we can do as individuals to
01:41:10.760fix all of white people's society if major governments of the world's economics completely
01:41:17.800collapse but what we can do is with the groups that we are involved in is to pool resources
01:41:26.520share the things we have and uh and do things that way what else i think is really important
01:41:32.200in order to facilitate what i just talked about is for our people to move closer together
01:41:38.200um segerheim is a big step forward in that and like i said cool if you don't want to if
01:41:46.760if there's not space or if you're unable or you don't want to live on the property itself,
01:41:51.260getting things close by is also a huge step. But it's not just there. We can do that right now
01:41:57.320around any of our Hoffs. I would love to see more of our people moving to towns and counties that
01:42:02.700we have Hoffs in and forming communities of Ausitru are there. The closer we live together,
01:42:09.040the more able we are to help each other in any kind of hard times. In a natural or man-made
01:42:16.240disaster in any kind of an economic downturn when any of us just have a crisis we are there and we
01:42:23.920have folks that can help so i think that's what i would suggest are some good steps do you have
01:42:28.720anything to add on that mike not that you haven't already said um i know one of the things i like
01:42:39.600to do if i hear of a job opening in an area that somebody or a direct either a direct member or
01:42:46.880direct family member if i know like i know for my job every so often i have uh my my company is
01:42:54.000pretty big pretty spread out if i know we have a job opening in an area where there's members
01:42:58.400i will put it out to those members hey y'all know anybody that fits this description we're hiring um
01:43:03.440Um, as far as what we can do to prepare, grow with each other, be, be there for each other.
01:43:18.720Um, I agree that I don't think it's going to be a massive collapse. I think it's going to be,
01:43:22.680and I work in, in more or less kind of my field is in an area where we saw a
01:43:29.920collapse um however that didn't mean the field doesn't mean the field doesn't go away that
01:43:37.100doesn't mean the people go doesn't go away what we can do to get stronger is honestly continuing
01:43:44.620to build our network is is being there for each other growing in frith um just
01:43:51.940honestly reaching out every so often and saying hey man you're all good you know that i like to
01:43:59.140that to some of the guys on in our area just hey you good so just being there for each other
01:44:08.020all right um so mike what are your favorite books five favorite books not lore related
01:44:17.940and favorite food recipes give me five books and five food recipes go all right um i saw the
01:44:25.700question coming so i quickly jotted down what i could think of i'm not in my office which means
01:44:30.180i'm not necessary i'm not near my um uh near my bookcase um one of my favorites i cannot remember
01:44:39.620it because i i actually lent my copy out i know alan calm down it's okay um i lit my copy out to
01:44:47.460somebody i haven't gotten it back but it's uh how to listen to jazz um it's and remember it was done
01:44:54.180by a columnist i want to say for a new york publication i don't remember which one um i'm
01:45:02.280a huge music guy i i i love uh jazz is one of my absolute favorites um i'm learning to play i'm
01:45:08.880working on the tenor saxophone personally but that book i would i remember going through it
01:45:14.460and reading it and really enjoying it because i would read it at night and then the next morning
01:45:18.480i'd go into work and immediately put on the suggested reading list so i'd go in there and
01:45:23.680create a little rep, you know, we read, you know, or not reading, excuse me, listening list on
01:45:27.460Amazon music and listen to the songs. Most likely what I would do is just grab whatever album those
01:45:32.760songs were on and listen to them. Um, that was one of them. Um, I'm not all the way through it,
01:45:39.380but I'm really enjoying the Mead Hall. I believe that's Pollock. Um, oh, let's see.
01:45:47.060one that i've uh one of the book there's two books on this list that i will constantly give
01:45:54.340as gives give as gifts um one of them and i give this one to adults as well it's give a mouse a
01:46:00.820cookie depending on um what field they work in i think it's a it teaches you a lesson about
01:46:08.740how much about reserving some of yourself and so it's it's uh i'm probably looking way too deep
01:46:16.960into that children's book give a mouse a cookie but that's uh one of my books that i uh like to
01:46:22.300give out and is one of my all-time favorites to recommend oh this is all of course non uh lore
01:46:27.480based or uh uh necessarily i guess meat hall was kind of faith-based it's more about so meat hall
01:46:33.680is about feasting um another one that i just finished i own a hard copy but can never get
01:46:39.960through the hard copy so i did the audible on it was uh dwarves by marcus helts it was a believe
01:46:46.800it was originally written in french and then uh translated he's got five volumes out i believe
01:46:52.620on audible i probably will stop at the first one because i think one of the things as a listener
01:47:00.100and as a consumer of media of any form or fashion with the more especially the conclusion with the
01:47:06.860idea of stories is and i'm not saying stop in the middle but just because there is a sequel
01:47:15.280doesn't mean you need to watch it if you enjoy the ending of the first one and you don't i don't
01:47:22.520want to say not care but you don't want the the the mental narrative to end and that was this was
01:47:29.660one of those books that i came to that clarity on was it wrapped up the ending in such a nice
01:47:34.540wonderful package that i honestly while i would have loved more i didn't want it if that makes
01:47:40.240sense kind of like uh one of my favorite tv shows is firefly uh josh whedon's um that's a
01:47:45.560phenomenal tv show but they couldn't have made a second season after the you know if they had
01:47:52.340done it right afterwards great after that they they're you know don't do it again uh dwarves
01:47:58.280um by marcus helps was one of the ones it just i thoroughly enjoyed it and i unfortunately will
01:48:04.900not go listen to those sequels because or if it is going to be a while because i like the way the
01:48:09.920story ended and i want to keep the mental narrative where it's at rather than having a chance for that
01:48:16.300mental narrative to go away i always liken the idea of we all you know most people can will say
01:48:23.200that the princess bride movie was an amazing movie and something that every as a universal truth
01:48:28.800everyone loves it right so uh if you've seen it most people absolutely love that movie well i
01:48:34.440always ask the question would you read the book so and that's that same idea with that is would
01:48:41.360you want your narrative your memories of that to be construed anyway i'm going off on a tangent on
01:48:48.060Sorry, that just kind of, I never get to talk like, I don't know, that's kind of fun stuff to talk about.
01:48:54.220And last but not least, my absolute favorite book in the world, I've read it through two or three times, listened to it on Audible multiple times.
01:57:50.640Physical activity is only as good as how healthy you eat.
01:57:54.800You know, you can go and work out and lift weights, in my opinion. This is personally and how I've learned it. If you can lift what you work out for three hours, but if you go afterwards and pound seven beers and eat three cheeseburgers, well, that's not necessarily going to pay off in the long run.
01:58:14.020So I think healthy eating habits. And with that, I honestly think wholesome eating habits. And what I mean by that is, I like the way Allen says it the best, what Allen says it the best. It is, when you go to the grocery store, you only visit the perimeter.
01:58:31.260so what that means is you you only you only hit the fresh stuff you never hit the can
01:58:37.980as much as absolutely possible only hit the fresh foods uh the the dairy the meats you know the
01:58:45.700cheeses the vegetables rather than going and going through you know the aisles and aisles
01:58:51.960of little debbies and doritos and canned suits so all right um ali says also says i'll tell you
01:59:07.640go the founder mcnowlin also connects roud's death by snake to the story of thor and jormungandr
01:59:13.880can you expand on that a little bit maybe just a tiny bit um i can't claim to know all of steve's
01:59:21.720thoughts on that but the motif of hero versus serpent is as old as our people um it's seen
01:59:35.320in so many branches of arian belief and it's very notable in thor's um long enmity with uh
01:59:46.520with Jormungandr. The idea of the snake slithering in and destroying somebody who's that strong,
01:59:56.920steadfast hero. Those connections are obvious when you point out the two stories. I don't know
02:00:07.520if it's anything particularly greater than that. I certainly don't think that was necessarily in
02:00:13.600mind of of olaf when he devised that particular torture but uh it is interesting and i think it
02:00:20.880is fitting for someone who's known as the strong uh beings how thor was also known for his might
02:00:28.160and his strength to be slain by by a serpent in that way um but it's certainly food for thought
02:00:36.640and it's interesting and i think it's poetic in a way now with that being said it's also to throw
02:00:45.920in there the the the flip side of it i don't say flip sides not the right not the right word but
02:00:50.800the other part of the olaf side of the story is that it is believed it is written in the sagas
02:00:57.680that he was visited by odin so and more or less turned his back on that so the fact that you have
02:01:05.360this you know a guy that essentially is believed to have opened the first church in norway the
02:01:13.760first christian church in norway being visited by the gods and then going off to do that it's also
02:01:21.920just something interesting to point out there as well so yeah in in the story of these men's life